Robert Franklin Mehl (March 30, 1898 – January 29, 1976) was an American

metallurgist Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

. "Robert Mehl, Metallurgist, Carnegie‐Mellon Professor"
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The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. January 31, 1976 National Academies Press:Biographical Memoirs V.78 (2000);ROBERT FRANKLIN MEHL
by

Cyril Stanley Smith Cyril Stanley Smith (4 October 1903 – 25 August 1992) was a British metallurgist and historian of science. He is most famous for his work on the Manhattan Project where he was responsible for the production of fissionable metals. A graduate ...

and William W. Mullins Mehl was noted for transforming of nineteenth-century

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

into the modern materials science. He was the founder and the head of a division of

Physical metallurgy {{unreferenced, date=April 2017 Physical metallurgy is one of the two main branches of the scientific approach to metallurgy, which considers in a systematic way the physical properties of metals and alloys. It is basically the fundamentals and app ...

at the

Naval Research Laboratory The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. It was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, applied research, technological ...

and a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

. The

American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers The American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME) is a professional association for mining and metallurgy, with over 145,000 members. It was founded in 1871 by 22 mining engineers in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Uni ...

established a gold medal award in his name in 1973. Institute of Metals Lecture/Mehl Award Subcommittee
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Notable awards, distinctions and honors

* the Matthewson Medal of the Metallurgical Society of the AIME (five times between 1934 and 1947) * the Howe Medal of the ASM (1939) * the gold medals of both the ASM (1952) and the AIME (1945) * the Le Chatelier Medal of the Société Française de Metallurgie (1956) * four honorary doctorates * and election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1958

Life and career

Mehl was born in

Lancaster, Pennsylvania Lancaster, ( ; pdc, Lengeschder) is a city in and the county seat of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is one of the oldest inland cities in the United States. With a population at the 2020 census of 58,039, it ranks 11th in population amon ...

. He graduated from

Franklin and Marshall College Franklin & Marshall College (F&M) is a private liberal arts college in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It employs 175 full-time faculty members and has a student body of approximately 2,400 full-time students. It was founded upon the merger of Frankli ...

in 1919. Mehl received his Ph.D. in

physical chemistry Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mecha ...

and metallurgy from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

in 1924. Mehl is the great grandfather of Jason Mehl, a sculptor who works in metal, and Sean Mehl, the guitarist of Dead to a Dying World.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mehl, Robert Franklin American metallurgists 1898 births 1976 deaths Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Franklin & Marshall College Princeton University alumni People from Lancaster, Pennsylvania Scientists from Pennsylvania